WIN – What’s important now. Forget the mistake and focus on the present.

Adjust and adapt. There is no perfect play. Make the best possible play or decision at any given time regardless of situation.

There is no such thing as a long closeout: Run at a shooter or contain the drive. Know who you are guarding.

Protect the key.

Always have to have a shooter (or three) on the floor.

Practices are competitive. Winners and losers.

This is not the right way to coach or the only way to coach, but these are the general things that I believe. The hardest thing for other coaches is to adjust to the amount of freedom that I give players, the lack of immediate feedback, and the lack of punishment. I believe that the 12-15 players who make the team want to be there, want to play hard, and want to improve. I also know that, as freshmen, few of them are going to know what going hard all the time means. That’s our job as coaches to teach them, as opposed to punishing them because of this lack of knowledge.

Most coaches (at least those that I have watched closely and worked for) want to correct mistakes immediately. I saw a quote on twitter yesterday that said, “Parents yelling at players from the stands and telling them what to do is like parents doing homework; it may work in the short term, but what are the long-term consequences?” The same is true of coaching. I don’t want to solve the players’ problems or fix their mistakes. This is, I think, a hard adjustment for many coaches. I want to create problems for players to solve. When they struggle, I want to give them time to struggle. I want to step in right at the point where their struggle may turn to frustration. If I see a frequent error that is easily solved, like pivoting to square to the basket, I step in (or use the rules to create the positive habit).

Bigger issues, like where to cut or where to pass, I want to teach through questions: What did you see? Where was the defender? Who else was open? What was the better decision? Open-ended questions force an answer; I am not trying to trick players (which I have to explain to them), but trying to help them learn. This takes longer than giving them my answer right away. In the long run, however, I believe this helps the player more.

Anyway, just an idea of the types of things that I am planning to talk about with my assistants to prepare them for coaching with me because I know I am different in many ways than most coaches and probably hard to work with for that reason.

When I first began assisting I made a lot of mistakes. Not so much in Xs and Os but in terms of communication (you know: yelling = good coaching. Traditions die hard)
Nobody ever gave me guidelines or a role.
Nice to see a blueprint

Brendan:
Thanks. I don’t know if this is a blueprint. I’m certainly different than many in terms of how I coach and how I want coaches to interact. But, if it helps, I’m glad.

When I was an assistant, nobody told me what to do either. I just did what I thought was right. I was young and didn’t have a huge filter. I see experienced coaches now who have far less input than I had as a 21-year-old college student mainly because I spoke up, whether by taking players on the side or asking the coach if I could add something, or whatever. In 2/3 jobs before I was 24, I completely changed the offense of experienced, championship high school and college head coaches; I see veteran assistants who aren’t able to get their head coaches to change a drill! I never realized how lucky I was to work for coaches who listened; I assumed all coaches wanted what was best for their teams. Now, I observe situations where protecting one’s ego appears more important than doing what’s best for the team. I’m fortunate not to be in any of those situations, but feel for the players and assistants involved.

Gavin:
I’m not sure that I understand completely. If a player does not sprint back on defense, it is a result of interference by a significant other? I’m not a big motivation guy; I agree that a coach can detract from a player’s motivation, but I’m not sure how much a coach can motivate a player to do something. I tend to believe that has to come from within. FWIW, in my last three years of coaching high school, I can count on one hand the number of times that I have had to punish lack of effort. Mostly, it stems from laziness and/or poor habits, I believe.